When the wounded come to the combat support hospital in Baghdad, Dr Sudip Bose and the staff of the emergency room wait for them.
'The injured soldiers' doctor is 'the lanky 30-year-old son of Indian immigrants from Kolkata. He grew up in Illinois and went to Northwestern Medical School, following the path of millions of first-generation Americans into the professional universe. But where others opted for safe careers and high-paying positions in the civilian world, Bose ended up in the middle of a war,' reports Phillip Robertson on salon.com
'In 1996, after his first year at medical school, Bose took a look at his tuition bill and joined the US army, accepting a deal where the military would pay for a year of education for every year of service,' Robertson explains in his feature, the lead article on salon.com on Thursday, June 17.
Bose told salon, 'It was a tough decision but you have to pay back the debt somehow. I could have ended up with about $200,000 of debt. My parents were struggling with it. There were a couple of choices; I could work 23 hours a day and pay it off or pay it off at the age of 50. You don't know what's going to happen so you don't know if it's a good decision or a bad decision. If you lose an arm or a leg it's a bad decision.'
'In six years,' Bose reasoned he 'would be nearly debt-free, having paid it back honourably by serving the country. The US army took a look at Bose, saw his quick mind and his skill as a surgeon,' Robertson reported, 'and sent him to Iraq where he now treats Americans and Iraqis for an enormous range of injuries.'
Bose is the only trained physician in emergency medicine for 135,000 Americans and an unknown number of Iraqis. He treats anyone who comes through the door, salon said.
'Watch out for Bose, he brings the rain,' a nurse told Robertson before they got on the convoy to the forward base in Khadimiya.
'In this scorched climate, we could only hope for rain; the nurse meant that when Bose was around, they were always hit with mass casualties. Rain was bombings, convoy ambushes, nightmare firefights that brought in injured by the dozens,' Robertson wrote. He discovered Bose worked long hours when the 'rain' came, performing emergency surgery on the critically wounded.
'Bose, who has a great passion for medicine, gives you the impression of a determined physics student and seems detached at times, slightly dorky,' writes Robertson. But in five days, Robertson 'never saw him hesitate over the name of a nerve, small bone or drug.'
It is not surprising, salon said. 'When Bose took his medical board examinations, he won the highest score in the country. To his colleagues, who have enormous respect for him, he is a star.'
